The Generous Tree
by CanzetYote
Summary: Blythe entrusts Sunil to guard a children's book for her that she checked out at the library to read to hospital patients, but is the timid blue mongoose ready to take on such a daunting task?
1. Chapter 1

**NOTE:** _All right, here's a new Littlest Pet Shop fic I'm working on. It's about Blythe entrusting Sunil to guard a book and well...let's just say things don't go as planned. It will probably have a couple more chapters. Feel free to read and review!_

Blythe had made a mad dash into the pet shop with a book in her hands. She zoomed past Mrs Twombly who was too busy checking inventory to even notice.

The brunette teenager dashed into the main play area where she noticed Sunil was relaxing, "Oh, hey Sunil. Where are all the other pets?"

Sunil shrugged, "There was quite the traffic jam on the road this morning when we got on the highway. You're just as early as I am."

Blythe instantly handed Sunil the book, "Can you please do me a favor and guard this? It's from the library and I'll be reading it to sick children at the hospital. I'll be back to pick it up this afternoon."

Sunil blinked his gold eyes in confusion, "Me? Guard it? Can't you wait for Russell to arrive? I mean, he could do a better job-"

"I'm in a hurry." Blythe interrupted, "And I'd trust you with a book more than my dad. Last time, he accidentally dropped one of my checked out library books from his helicopter and it somehow wound up in the sewer."

Sunil cringed, "Did...the librarian know?"

Blythe nodded, "My father had to pay a fine. Anyway, I'm off to school."

Sunil blinked, "So...you won't be with us much today?"

Blythe sighed, "I made a promise to Youngmee, her little brother is in the hospital and all. I'll try to spend as much time as I can with you guys tomorrow. The only other time you'll see me again today is when I pick up my book."

Sunil smiled, "Okay, Blythe. I will guard this book as if my life depended on it!"

Blythe gave Sunil a quick hug and a kiss on the head, "Thank you, Sunil! I knew I could count on you!"

Blythe quickly grabbed her things and dashed out of the pet shop. Sunil looked at the book which had a boy facing a tall tree. The title of the book read "The Generous Tree." Sunil raised an eyebrow in interest and opened up the book. His golden eyes scanned across the pages as he read it. In the book, the boy often played on the tree and even picked the tree's apples to sell for money. However, the next part of the book brought tears to Sunil's eyes, the boy chopped down the tree and turned it into a house. The blue mongoose's heart broke and he let out a gentle whimper, "But...why? The tree did so much for him...it sacrificed itself for him...why? How is the tree happy? HOW?"

Sunil hung his head as a single tear trickled down his muzzle. The tear dripped off his little pink nose and hit the last page of the book. The mongoose's eyes snapped open in panic and he peered down at the book. A single, wet, salty stain was on the book from where his tear had landed. Sunil gulped and shivered, "I...ruined it! I could not contain my emotions and I ruined it. The...the librarian will have my head! I will be HEADLESS!"

Suddenly, Vinnie approached Sunil's back and tapped him on the shoulder, causing the mongoose to jump so high in the air that he hit the ceiling.

The mongoose fell off the ceiling and spun around, glaring at the gecko, "Vinnie! How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me like that!?"

Vinnie shrugged, "I lost count at about 531 times. I heard you worrying about ruining something. What were you talking about?"

Sunil sighed and shook his head, "Blythe entrusted me with keeping this book safe. I opened it up and read it. It was so sad that I shed a tear on a page and now the book is damaged because I am a big crybaby! And now...the librarian will have my head!"

Vinnie's eyes widened and he opened up the book, "Show me the page you cried on."

Sunil flipped the book to the very last page and Vinnie noticed the tear stain, "Wait right here, I think I can fix it."

Sunil raised an eyebrow, "Are you SURE about this?"

Vinnie smirked as he pulled out a jar of glue, "I got this whiteout."

Sunil eyed the jar and crossed him arms, "Vinnie, that says glue."

Vinnie shrugged, "That's another fancy word for whiteout. Trust me, the book will be as good as new and not tainted with salty mongoose tears."

Before Sunil could react, Vinnie spread the glue over the tear stain and closed the book, "There, good as new!"

Sunil cautious opened the book again and noticed that the last two pages were stuck together with the glue, "Nice going, Vinnie. I think you made it worse."

Suddenly, Minka entered the room, hopping with energy, "Hey, Sunil! Hey, Vinnie! Crazy traffic jam this morning, huh? What's that? A book?"

Sunil sighed, "This is a library book Blythe told me to guard. She'll be reading it to children at the hospital."

Vinnie pointed at Sunil, "Yeah, but Crybaby McSaltytears over here had to go and ruin it."

Sunil crossed his arms and glared at Vinnie when suddenly, Minka spoke up, "I think I can fix it!"

Suddenly, Minka snatched the book from Sunil's paw and flipped through the pages rapidly when she came across the damaged pages. Without a second thought, Minka ripped the pages clean out of the book while Sunil watched in complete horror, "MINKA! Are you insane!? What on Earth are you doing?!"

Minka grinned, "I'm rewriting the ending, silly! Children's books shouldn't make people cry."

"Yeah, that's a great idea, Minka. I'm sure the book will be as good as new with you fixing it." Sunil replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Minka turned to Vinnie, "Got any paper, Vinnie?"

Vinnie pulled some flypaper that was full of dead flies out of his hammerspace pocket, "I got some flypaper that I use to catch my lunch."

Minka rubbed her chin a little and shrugged, "Oh well, I guess beggars can't be choosers."

Sunil watched it complete disgust as Minka took the flypaper and pulled out a crayon and started slowly writing on the sticky paper full of dead flies, "Ewww, so gross..."

Minka groaned in annoyance, "Looks like the crayon is pretty much stuck. Might as well break out the brushes and paint."

And so, Minka got to fetch her art supplies and she dipped a brush on dark blue paint. She slowly painted the words "THE END" on the flypaper covered with dead flies. Sunil bit his lip, watching helplessly as the book was desecrated ever furthur because when Minka closed the book, the dark blue paint seemed to bleed through a couple of the pages. Minka grinned, "There! Good as new!"

Sunil slapped his forehead and ran his paw down his face, "We are so dead..."

Pepper was the next pet to arrive at the pet shop and she looked over and saw the book, "The Generous Tree, huh? You know, I've always thought that book was kind of depressing. What's it doing here?"

Sunil sighed, "It's a library book. Blythe asked me to guard it for her and well...I've been doing a not so good job at it. She's reading it to kids at a hospital."

Pepper blinked, "Sick kids at a hospital reading THIS sappy garbage? It'll only make them sicker. I know a way to make the kids laugh. After all, laughter IS the best medicine."

The skunk pulled a pen out of her tail and took the cap off. The blue mongoose watched in shock as Pepper pushed him aside and started drawing on the book, "PEPPER! Are you insane?!"

"As an artist myself, I'm very curious to see what Pepper will come up with." Minka commented. Sunil only stared at the ground and whimpered and sulked.

Vinnie chuckled, "It's gonna be pretty cool to see how Pepper can liven up this sad book." Sunil shivered a bit and swallowed a lump in his throat as he helplessly watched the skunk further graffiti the book.

When she was done, Pepper grinned to herself. The boy was dressed in clown outfits with bunny ears now and she even drew a face with a unibrow and buckteeth on the tree in every panel. Minka and Vinnie had a good chuckle over the graffitied illustrations while Sunil felt tears of fear fill up in his eyes. He quickly sniffed and blinked the tears away, rubbing his eyes with his paws. He hated the idea of him and his friends being guillotined by the librarian.

Suddenly, Zoe entered the room to see Sunil, Minka, Vinnie and Pepper gathered around a book. The purple dog blinked, "The Generous Tree? What kind of a book is that?"

Pepper turned to Zoe, "It's a sad children's book about a tree getting chopped down. Blythe's reading it to sick kids at the hospital so I drew funny faces on the boy and tree to liven things up."

Zoe blinked, "Does it have any pictures of good fashion in it?"

Pepper rolled her eyes, "It's a children's book, Zoe. Not a fashion magazine. Not every book has pictures of models and dresses."

Zoe crossed her arms, "Well then, I guess it's time to make this book more fashionable."

"Please don't, Zoe. This book has been ruined enough." Sunil replied, his little heart racing inside his chest.

Zoe rolled her ice blue eyes at the mongoose, "Ruined? Darling, I'm only trying to make it better. Such a drab, dull book needs a little something to catch the eye and lure the reader in!"

Sunil nervously watched as Zoe took out a fashion magazine from her hat and she turned to Pepper, "Got any scissors?"

Pepper nodded and pulled some scissors out of her tail and Sunil stared in shock, "You keep SCISSORS in your tail, Pepper?! But that's so dangerous! What if you trip and fall and get cut and BLEED to DEATH?"

Pepper rolled her eyes as she handed Zoe the scissors, "You know, Sunil, I'm gonna have a nice, long talk with Russell because he's filling your head with all those paranoid thoughts on safety and stuff."

Sunil whimpered and watched Zoe cut a picture of Lady Gaga out of the fashion magazine. The dog turned to Vinnie, "Got any glue?"

"Sure do!" Vinnie nodded as he handed Zoe a tube of glue.

Zoe grinned as she squeezed the glue on the back of the cut out Lady Gaga and opened The Generous Tree. Flipping to a page with the boy's girlfriend on it, she carefully pasted the Lady Gaga over the girl and gave a thumbs up, "There!"

Sunil gasped in horror as Zoe closed the book. At this point, it was damaged well beyond repair and Sunil wished so hard he could curl up into a ball and shrink to the size of an ant. All the blood drained from the mongoose's face, he began to feel light-headed and he passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

**NOTE:** _Well, here is the second chapter. Sorry it took me so long, I got wrapped up in playing Dragon Quest IX._

_Sunil's golden eyes snapped open and he found himself chained to a device of some sort. He slowly looked up to see a blade positioned above his neck. His eyes darted to the left and he saw the headless bodies of Vinnie, Minka, Pepper and Zoe all in similar contraptions. Sunil whimpered as tears began to stream down his face. An intimidating old woman then stood in front of him with a smirk on his face, "Any last words before you die?"_

_Sunil sobbed quietly, "I...I'm so sorry for...r-r-ruining the b-b-book..."_

_The old librarian smirked at the traumatized mongoose, "Sorry doesn't cut it."_

_And with that, the blade fell, decapitating Sunil cleanly. The mongoose's head stared up at his body, eyes focusing on his own bloody neck stump which used to hold his head. Sunil used his one ounce of life left to let a single tear roll down his furry blue cheek._

Suddenly, Sunil's eyes snapped open and he saw Russell in front of him, "Sunil...are you okay? You fainted."

Sunil rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times, "Russell...am I headless?"

Russell crossed his arms, "Nope, your head is still attached to your body."

Sunil whimpered, "So...the librarian won't have my head?"

Russell shook his head, "Sunil, what on Earth are you talking about? The worst a librarian can do to you is suspend your library membership. Librarians don't have the authority to carry out capital punishment, especially beheadings." Sunil let out a sigh of relief as Russell continued, "Everyone else told me what happened. They feel pretty guilty about it but the book is beyond repair. In the condition its in, most likely it would have to be paid for out of Blythe's own pocket."

Sunil whimpered softly to himself, "But then...Blythe will hate me forever!"

Russell shook his head as he placed his paw on the tearful mongoose's shoulder, "Of course not. Blythe could never hate any of us. Penny Ling will be arriving soon, by the way. Her owners got the worst of the traffic."

Sunil sighed, "At least the book is ruined just enough so she won't find out how truly sad it is."

Suddenly, Russell's yellow-green eyes lit up, "I think I have an idea. Sunil, why don't you use your magic to fix the book?"

Sunil slowly shook his head, "Russell, you know how rusty my magic has been for the last couple of weeks. There have been more explosions than usual and most likely, the book will turn to ash if I try to fix it. And besides, even if my magic fixes it, Penny will still arrive and flood it with her tears upon reading it."

Russell sighed, "All right, so you've hit a bad streak recently with your magic. I think I know how to fix that, follow me."

And so, the mongooose followed the hedgehog to a toy box and Russell started digging through it and pulled out what appeared to be a silver coin, "This coin has given me good luck ever since Blythe gave it to me. Maybe if you hold it in your paw, you'll have better luck with your magic."

Sunil sighed, "You really think so, Russell?"

Russell nodded, "I know so, Sunil. Now grab your cape, hat and wand because we've got a book to fix!"

Sunil nodded as he pulled his equiptment from the chest. He wrapped his cape around his neck, put his top hat on and readied his wand, "I sure hope you're right, Russell."

Taking a deep breath, Sunil walked back to the main area and turned to face the pets. Pepper blinked at him, "Please don't tell me you're gonna try and fix the book with magic."

Zoe nodded, "You've been on a losing streak, hon. Maybe you should just hang up the cape and try something else."

Sunil looked hurt by Zoe's words. Give up being a magician? There's no way he could do that! If he did that, he'd start losing parts of himself, especially what little self-esteem he had. The blue mongoose let out a deep sigh, "Look, maybe I was just having a bad week. Maybe this time, my magic will work."

Zoe shrugged, "Whatever. It'll probably be reduced to ash the second you wave your wand at it." Vinnie punched Zoe in the arm, "OW! What was that for, Vinnie?!"

Vinnie crossed him arms, "Hey, Sunil tries really hard at his magic! How would you feel if someone insulted your singing, Zoe?"

Zoe hung her head, "Bad..."

"So give the poor guy a break and give him a chance! What if he really CAN fix the book?" Vinnie replied as he glared at the purple spaniel.

Zoe sighed, "I guess you're right, Vinnie. All right, we can give Sunil a chance."

Pepper nodded, "Maybe his luck will turn around this time! You never know..."

Minka grinned, "That's the spirit, Pepper! Sunil can fix the book!"

Sunil let out a deep sigh, his little heart racing inside his chest, "All right, I'll try to fix it. Here goes nothing..."

Sunil closed his eyes, grabbed the book and gently ran his wand along the cover of the book. Suddenly, the tip of his wand sparkled and his eyes glowed bright yellow as he tapped the book three times, mumbling magical incantations in his native Hindi language. The pets watched in awe as Sunil cast his spell upon the book.

When he was done, the book was perfectly fixed and all the pages were mended together. Sunil breathed a sigh of relief as he smiled victoriously to himself when suddenly, all the books pages suddenly burst into flames. Sunil's jaw dropped and he stared on in complete horror as Russell grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher, aimed it at the flaming book and sprayed.

Taking his hat off, Sunil glared at the good luck coin Russell had given to him, "You lied to me..."

Angrily, the blue mongoose threw the coin to the ground and marched over towards the pet slide. Vinnie, Minka, Pepper, Zoe and Russell all watched, feeling sick with guilt.

Vinnie and Pepper moved forward but Russell blocked them, "He needs some time alone."

Pepper shook her head, "Maybe...I can tell him a joke to make him laugh."

Vinnie nodded in agreement, "It's our fault he's this upset. We should go in and talk to him."

Russell sighed, "Sunil needs some time alone. The last thing we want to do is upset him even more. I should know because when I get upset like that, I like my alone time."

Minka crossed her arms, "But you aren't Sunil, so how do YOU know how he feels and what he wants?"

Russell shot a glare at Minka, "It's just a guess, okay? Sunil needs to be by himself until he calms down. He's just that type of guy."

Pepper nodded, "Now that I think about it, Russell does have a point. I prefer to be alone when I get upset."

Suddenly, Penny Ling burst through the pet shop at top speed and turned her attention to a pile of ashes that was once a book and noticed all the pets except for Sunil gathered around the bottom of the slide, talking. The panda approached them and turned to Russell, "Did I...miss something?"

"Sunil's feeling pretty upset." Russell replied.

Penny tilted her head, "Why?"

Pepper took a deep breath, "Well, it's a long story. We kinda ruined a book he was guarding."

Zoe rolled her eyes, "Actually, we didn't ruin it, darling. We completely destroyed it."

Penny turned to Russell, "I'll go talk with him."

Russell shook his head, "But what if he wants to be left alone? I mean, surely he has to blow off some steam-"

Suddenly, Penny shoved past Russell and glared at him, "If none of you are going to hug him, than I guess I'll be the one."

"But Penny-" Russell began, "Wouldn't it be best to leave Sunil alone till this all blows over?"

Penny crossed her arms, "ALONE? Right now, Sunil is depressed so he needs a HUG more than anything. I can't believe how selfish you all are, not helping him when he needs comfort the most. Shame on ALL OF YOU!"

And with that, Penny marched up the slide and entered it. She noticed Sunil weeping softly in the corner, tears running slowly down his face as he hugged his magician cape like a security blanket tightly to his chest. The mongoose didn't even noticed to panda's presence but that soon changed when he felt warm arms wrap around him and pull him into a hug. He wasn't sure exactly who was hugging him but he just nuzzled into Penny's chest and cried. After a few minutes, Sunil pulled away. He could feel a paw gently wiping the teardrops from his soft blue face and he opened his eyes, blinking the tears to clear his vision, "Penny...Ling?"

Penny smiled sadly at Sunil with tears forming in her own eyes, "Tell me everything that happened."

Sunil took a deep breath and shivered, "Well, it all started when Blythe told me to guard a book she was going to read to sick children at the hospital. I read it myself and the story was so sad I shed a tear on it. I got a little panicked over that and Vinnie was the next to arrive. He offered to fix the book with whiteout which was actually glue. The pages stuck together and then Minka came along and tore it out. They replaced the torn out pages with flypaper and paint but that made the book an even bigger mess. Pepper came along and criticised the book for being too sad so she drew funny faces on the characters. Then Zoe came and she cut out pictures from a fashion magazine and pasted them in the book. Finally, Russell came and suggested I use my magic to fix the book. It backfired so badly that the book caught on fire and now its ruined. Oh, Penny, it's all my fault. If only I hadn't been so curious and read that stupid book, none of this would have happened!"

Penny placed a paw on Sunil's shoulder, "Gee, I'm sorry about what happened. What was the book anyway?"

"The Generous Tree." Sunil replied, sniffling softly as he used his magician cape to dab a few tears from his eyes.

Penny sighed, "I've read that book, too. I probably cried harder than you did over it."

Sunil took a deep breath, "So, now what do we do? Russell told me that librarians don't behead people so I guess Blythe could be banned from the library forever."

Penny sighed and placed a paw on the blue mongoose's shoulder, "You said that you and Pepper know the story, right?"

Sunil nodded sadly, "Yeah..."

A big smile grew on Penny's face, "So why don't the three of us work on a remake?"

Sunil blinked his golden eyes a few times in confusion, "Ummm...Penny Ling? No offense but I don't think the librarian would fall for that old trick."

Penny sighed, "You're right, Sunil. It would be a waste of time and paper."

The panda looked out of the slide and saw Blythe talking to the other pets, "Blythe's here."

Sunil's eyes widened to the size of saucers, "Blythe's here? RIGHT NOW?! But...oh no, I guess I'll have to tell her."

Fighting back a lump in his throat and whimpering, Sunil walked sadly down the slide and up to Blythe, gazing at her with big, watery, gold eyes.


End file.
